Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Hawaii Short Term Rental Story

http://reason.com/blog/2017/01/24/hawaii-proposal-would-punish-short-term

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can see the state's angle by requiring a license.
As it is now, how many STR folks actually declare all their income and what better to hide it than to have no license?

Anonymous said...

I’d like to throw my hat into the ring on the issue of vacation rental in Tofino. As I understand , when logging and fishing incomes were fading in the west and early tourism discussions for Tofino were on the table, at the center was the call for a vacation industry where the residents of Tofino could benefit, family income earned would replace some of the income lost in the sunset logging and fishing industries. The residents of Tofino, home owners were at this table, not just the larger company and developers bottom line.
I’ve lived here only since 1994…23 yrs. I see the same core residents , some new younger families. Some like myself, who bought and/or developed homes, service and business interests in Tofino. More on that, but what I’m trying to say is, in this slo-mo discussion and implementation around Tofino’s lack of housing, at the center should be …the Tofino homeowners. Now with this at center, may I express the following: IMHO
Tofino homeowners are not responsible for providing accommodation for the larger resort staff housing needs. Staff accommodation is the domain of business and council in a negative rental environment.
Resort and business owners should be required to provide and/or be the lease holder on any properties, apt., etc. needed to house their staff. Why are the homeowners, made out to be criminals because of and responsible for, now that’s a broken record, repeated and repeated, the shortage of rentals in Tofino?
Also, with the years I’ve managed vacation rentals and long term rental for property owners in Tofino, I would like to bring up the following:
Tenants, mostly young tenants and mostly transitory, bring in a very passive income, when the cost of repair, utility, maintenance and dealing with the revolving door of sublet and transferred rental contracts, is applied. If the resort / business were required to hold the tenancy lease for their employees…and not just 10-20 % of their staff, required to be responsible for damage deposits and occupancy limits…which is certainly an issue of multiple tenants bunking with fellow employees, collect the rent etc., and deal with bylaw issues, as in multiple vehicle parking, neighbourhood impact, and BC Tenancy issues. The homeowner would be adequately paid for a service they are providing to the business and have a go to with the stakeholder business should any problems arise. Given a choice to rent your home, or part of your home, to the short term tenants that make up the bulk of persons looking for longer term accommodation, and renting your property as vacation rental that is managed, cleaned and inspected on at least a weekly basis, and then only ½ of the year mostly, without the confines of the BC Tenancy which, if anyone has ever tried to remove a problem tenant will find, is squarely behind the Tenant and not the titleholder…what would the people of Tofino chose? Are they not smart enough to chose what benefits them best? What would the business community do in their shoes? Right, chose what profits the company.
I repeat, why are the homeowners made out to be criminals, responsible for, now that’s a broken record, repeated and repeated, the shortage of rentals in Tofino?

Bill 101 said...

10:30 - well thought-out and dispassionately well-argued, but how big does a small business have to be before it has to buy a house (or construct one LOL) to house its employees? The economics are daunting. Our short-term residents, upon which we have become unfortunately dependent, would totally dig a field of ATCO trailers ... where to hide it and who pays?

Anonymous said...

Where to hide it?

Well, ask Pacific Sands. They hid a series of Atco trailers for staff housing on their property, without permitting or approval, and District Staff claim ignorance!

I'm all for businesses working to resolve their housing issues "in house" but this is a joke!

That, on top of the chinese pre-fabbed buildings and destruction of the buffer between Pac Sands and the beach and poor Bill Pettinger must be turning in his grave!

Tofino, get your shit together!

Anonymous said...

Well said 3:36 !!!
This town is going to rat shit because of idiotic / two-faced / geriatric / self-serving mindsets in power
We HAVE to clean that slate.
I hope the majority of them DO NOT get re-elected. Time to go plant daisies or something - Mayor can offer up her BG & they can all have tea ?